Keep the Fox in the Bag
by phoenixyfriend
Summary: They are an anomaly in this world, and they have no reason to help it. Nonetheless, they do... whether the world knows of their help or not. And the help can't afford to let the cat out of the bag, or as the case may be... the fox.
1. A Whole New World

**A/N: Yes, another new story. Give me a second to explain.**

**Now, a lot of you know that I recently got into Shingeki no Kyojin. Those who don't know probably don't care anyway. I'm fine with that.**

**Now, most of those who know me somewhat as an author are also aware of my propensity to writing crossovers. And there is a definite lack of SnK x Naruto crossovers. At the moment, I'm only following three, one of which was recently hit by a ton of bashing, so I decided to go ahead and get involved myself.**

**By the way, the bashing that the other story got was most definitely not deserved, as the story is currently one of the few that's actually somewhat palatable. The story in question is "A Shinobi's Resolve," by ****Markus-Antonius****, so go say hi and give 'em a hug and a nice review. They're still learning, but they've got potential.**

**In any case, wish me luck? I'll probably start a second one soon, as well, but for now, have some main character, minor character, pseudo-bro goodness.**

o.o.o.o.o

To be fair, Konohamaru thought, there wasn't exactly any reason to think that things would blow up _this_ badly. When he had been watching Naruto-aniki try to recreate Hiraishin, he thought that the worst that could happen was that Aniki would end up in the hospital again like he had the last five times. Sure, Sakura-onee-san would be angry, but now that the stress of the war was gone, she wouldn't be nearly as explosive as she had before.

He did not expect for the seal to _blow up_ and take the both of them out of their own world, along with a large chunk of the surrounding land and trees. He did not expect to end up in a different world.

He did not expect to be running from naked, sexless giants that were consistently trying to eat him and Naruto.

"Aniki!" Konohamaru shouted, even as he dodged one of the slavering beasts. He ran as close to Naruto as he could, before being forced to do a backflip off of the wall of an abandoned cottage to dodge an overlarge hand. He ran under the legs of the creature, trying to confuse it for at least a few seconds.

"Odama rasengan!" Naruto shouted, driving the enormous swirling ball of energy through the head and upper body of the creature. Finally, finally, the creature stopped moving, steam rising from the body as it decomposed at an impossible rate.

Naruto sat down heavily, panting in exertion. With the buildings he'd seen it was obvious that people of normal size had lived here once, so he didn't want to accidentally scare off potential allies with Kurama. Unfortunately, that meant that he couldn't really use some of his bigger techniques, and though he avoided what he could, that meant that the ones he _did_ fight were fast and attacked with an element of certain surprise.

"That was the fifth one." Naruto muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose. "And we still don't know what part of what we're doing is actually killing them. It can't seriously be total destruction of that much of the body. Seriously, if they don't die from destroying just the head…"

He made an annoyed, frustrated noise, tearing at his hair. "We need to find either people or a defensible location. A small cave, or at least a high tree for the night."

Konohamaru nodded, looking around nervously at the dying light. As a shinobi, they would be able to hear the Titans from even farther away than civilians. "Who should take first watch?"

"I'll take care of it." Naruto groaned. "Shadow clones, maybe."

Konohamaru nodded, and then looked at the building that he'd jumped off of earlier. "Maybe we could look around and see if there's any information here?"

"You saw the signs." Naruto mumbled. "We don't understand a thing here."

Konohamaru shrugged a little. "Picture books? Maps?"

"Nngh…" Naruto put his face in his hands. "I don't know…"

"Maybe we're close enough for you to sense people with Sage Mode now?" They'd tried it earlier, but there either weren't people, or they were all dead.

"I guess…" Naruto frowned. "But what if there was never a God Tree here? I mean, there's chakra in the air, and in some of the plants and smaller animals, but there was almost none in the deer we saw earlier, and none at all in the giant things. I mean… what if the reason I can't sense anyone is because they don't have chakra?"

Konohamaru didn't have an answer to that, especially when the attempt proved futile again.

"Fine." Naruto stood up, dusting himself off. "We'll go according to procedure. Straight line, random direction, find a river, and follow it. If we're lucky, we can find some fish to catch, too."

"O…okay."

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto stared at the enormous wall, his mind blank in confusion. It was almost as much confusion as the knowledge that the giants couldn't move at night. It had made it easier to forage for food, at least.

"Well, it's not a river." Konohamaru supplied, perhaps in an attempt to be helpful, or in an attempt to state the obvious and get it out of the way.

"…We could still follow it?" Naruto suggested, and then froze.

"Kono."

"Yeah…?" The boy looked at him in wary confusion.

"Let's climb the wall." Naruto turned to him with a large grin. "It'll take a bunch of chakra, so you might get a bit tired, but it'll get us away from those things."

Konohamaru's eyes brightened, and he turned to the wall. "Last one up's a crazy Uchiha!"

"Not a chance!"

They made their way to the top, laughing in the knowledge that they'd finally found a safe refuge to keep to during the day, and stopped as soon as they made it all the way.

The sight was beautiful, it really was.

It was also, for that matter, pockmarked with large, roving humanoids, seen only from a distance, and all heading east.

"…They seem to have a craving for human flesh, right?" Konohamaru suggested. "So maybe they're all going where people are?"

"…Yeah." Naruto's face held a look of disturbing realization at the sight of so many of the creatures that had plagued them over the past months. He turned to look behind him, seeing still more of the creatures just roaming around aimlessly. "We'll follow them along the wall during the day, and do some hunting at night. Hopefully, we can at least get some clues."

Just what kind of a world was this?

o.o.o.o.o

"How big do ya think the thing that broke this must have been?" Konohamaru asked, staring at the whole in the wall that the creatures had been passing through during the day. It was night, now, and they had seen the once-bustling town from the wall earlier that day, when there had still been light.

"At least as big as a Summon." Naruto muttered, staring at the whole. "Unless they have advanced weaponry or jutsu."

"I think it was the giants. I mean, there used to be people here, so maybe they were trying to get in to hunt people, so they broke the gate." Konohamaru commented, looking around nervously, out of a sense of self-preservation that had been honed over years training as a shinobi, and exacerbated by the past two weeks running around and escaping the grasping fingers of the monstrous creatures.

"Probably just brute force, then." Naruto mulled over the idea, looking around for other signs of destruction. "I don't think it was anything the size of what we've seen so far, or there would be more holes in the wall. They don't seem all that strong, either."

Konohamaru flinched, a little scared of just how large this thing must have been. "Large enough that it might have been harder to kill than one of the Pain Paths?"

Naruto looked over at him, and then shrugged. "If we could figure out how to kill normal ones easily, then maybe. I'm not sure yet. We were trained to kill people, not these things. These things are hard to kill because we don't have information. Once we get information…"

Konohamaru nodded. "Right. Have to find people, then."

"Which means…"

"We follow the river, right?"

"Right. Though, the direction…" Naruto tapped his chin. "There weren't any buildings on the other side of this thing, right? Just on this side. So, I think we're on the inside right now."

"So… we go North." Konohamaru said.

"Yeah. North."

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: I know Konohamaru isn't a very popular character, but I think he has potential in this situation, for one very specific reason that you'll understand soon.**

**Timeline and ages:**

**Naruto is currently seventeen and a half. The accident occurs about six months after the end of the war, and as his birthday is on one of the last days of the war against 'Tobi,' this makes him seventeen and a half. Granted, it could also make him sixteen and a half, but I think he'd be seventeen during the war. If Kishi decides to reveal otherwise, I will come back and fix this.  
**

**Konohamaru is thirteen, because his birthday is in late December, and he's twelve in Shippuden.  
**

**The SnK/AoT universe is ONE AND A HALF YEARS post-Zhiganshina and THREE AND A HALF YEARS pre-Trost.**

**That good?**

**Good.**

**Let's see where this goes.**

**(The usuals apply: please don't bash any characters, please don't request cameos, and please don't request, bash, shout, or otherwise push me to keep or avoid certain pairings. If you've read my works before, you know how I roll.)**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	2. Over the Woods and Through the River

Water walking, Naruto decided, was even more useful here than it was back home. Simply put, he and Konohamaru could use the river as a normal pathway, whereas the giants they ran from could only either stay on the sides or go into the water. Generally, the giants entered the water, and the current, running counter to Naruto and Konohamaru's path, posed enough resistance that the giant in question would slow down by quite a bit. And on top of that, it didn't involve the amount of exertion that jumping from tree to tree did, just a little extra chakra and some better control.

Granted, Naruto probably could have taken on the giants himself with ease, but he didn't want to risk Konohamaru's safety. Hokage's grandson or not, Kono was only a genin, and he didn't have nearly as much power as Naruto had at that age. "Better to run away and fight another day" wasn't exactly Naruto's modus operandi for battle, but it was the safer option right now.

Quite frankly, Naruto wasn't used to having to think _too_ far ahead or take care of other people, unless baby-sitting D-ranks counted, and he hadn't done those since he was Kono's age. Most of his precious people could take care of themselves, so he generally didn't have to do it for them, and those who couldn't were under someone else's care. At least, that had been the case until right now, when one of them wasn't, and Naruto ended up the sole person in charge of their welfare. Suddenly, Naruto had to deal with responsibility, and he wasn't going to mess up.

If anything happened to Konohamaru, Naruto wouldn't be able to forgive himself. What kind of Hokage could he be if he let the _one person_ he was supposed to be in charge of die? Though, by the looks of things, becoming Hokage seemed a pipe dream, given that they were no longer even in the Elemental Nations. Strange, how just a few weeks in a hostile land with someone incapable of really defending themselves had already forced him to mature more than several months being hunted by Akatsuki had.

He growled, putting a hand to his head in irritation. He waved off Konohamaru's concerns

Wait, was that…?

"Konohamaru, veer off to the East, get up into those trees." Naruto called, pointing to the copse in question even as his hands came up to his chest to form the oh-so-familiar cross-shaped seal.

Creating several shadow clones to play as a minor long-distance scouting squad was an idea he'd only hit upon several days into their travels from the giant wall, but it was one that had worked fairly well. Of course, sometimes the shadow clones allowed themselves to be eaten for the sake of experimentation, which meant that Naruto now occasionally had disturbingly realistic dreams of one of the giants getting him or Kono while they were out of chakra, but they weren't as bad as the dreams about the Valley of the End.

He hopped up into the boughs of the monstrous vegetation, keeping an eye on his charge all the while. One of the shadow clones popped midway, and he was hit by the memory of a clone destroying a giant from the inside, creating an Odama Rasengan while halfway down the creature's throat. Shaking his head to regain his sense of balance, he formed a few more clones and sent them on their merry way as Konohamaru came to sit next to him.

"Aniki?" Konohamaru's voice was fairly quiet, and he seemed a little nervous. Granted, they rarely took to the trees anymore, not after figuring out how useful the river was in that respect, so maybe the worry was a little warranted.

Naruto pointed north, along the river. "D'you see anything that way?"

Konohamaru blinked and frowned, then turned to squint down the river. The sun was glinting of the water, making it a little difficult, but he eventually spotted a pale splotch against the horizon that he thought might be what he was looking for. After several seconds, he thought he had it figured out.

"It's another wall!"

"Yep." Naruto nodded. "I only noticed it a few minutes ago, but it's been getting clearer. We'll probably be there by nightfall, if we keep up these speeds. A few hours past, if we take a few breaks."

Konohamaru nodded, biting his lip. "And then?"

"Well… we have two options, if there are people." Naruto said, shrugging. "But I won't say them until we're there, because I don't know if there _are_ people there."

"So we just want to get there first?" Konohamaru pouted a little, disgruntled by the fact that his superior had Intel that he wasn't sharing.

"Yeah." Naruto grinned and ruffled Konohamaru hair. "C'mon, it'll be fine, I promise! We'll have to switch to trees partway there, though." He mused. "If there are people on top, I don't want them to see us until it's absolutely necessary."

"…Okay." Konohamaru grumbled.

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto and Konohamaru slid to a stop simultaneously as they heard a loud, deep noise, like an extremely large explosive tag. Before their very eyes, less than a kilometer away, the head of one particularly large giant was destroyed as it attempted to destroy a large gate.

"Trees, now."

Within minutes, Naruto was lying down on a branch and lacing together the fingers of his hands behind his head. "Okay, so there are _definitely_ people up there. Possibly under siege."

"Do I get to know the options now?" Konohamaru groused.

Naruto grinned at him, entertained, but quickly returned to business. "First option is that we sneak in during the night with a mild Genjutsu, and try to blend in with everyone else. But I think that could go wrong, 'cause I don't think we have the same language."

"The books?" Konohamaru guessed.

"The books." Naruto confirmed. "And there's also the fact that we don't know how to fake some paperwork to pretend we're actual citizens. I know Baa-chan would never trust someone that just randomly showed up in Konoha and didn't seem to know anything about shinobi, and the ANBU would bring them in for questioning, so it might not be the best idea. On the other hand, it also makes sure that we can also get _out_ if we need to, and they won't know because they won't know we were there in the first place if we're careful about it."

Konohamaru bit his lip, a little worried about just how many problems were part of this scenario. "Okay… what's the second option?"

"…A prank, kind of." Naruto admitted. "At least, that's what I'm telling myself. Basically, we go all-out to show them that we're here. Or that you are, anyway."

"What?"

"Um… okay, how do I put this…" Naruto screwed up his face into the rather awkward and pinched expression that was his thinking face outside of battle. "Okay, basically, you're going to pretend to be a civilian. You're young and, even if you aren't really _cute_, you can pass for being pretty innocent. If we can't understand each other, even better, because then there's no chance that they'll catch you lying about something. We want to be as obvious as possible with this so that they don't suspect anything. So… you'll pretend to be the sole survivor of an isolated mountain village outside the walls, which was protected from the giants by… something. Say that it ran as a cave system that had tunnels that were too small for a giant to get in. I think Oto was underground, so it's not like there aren't villages out there that do that. Maybe it was destroyed in an earthquake.

"You'll run up at dawn and draw their attention, get them to take you up somehow, or open the gate to let you in before the giants wake up. I mean, they giants need sun, and it takes most of them an hour to wake up completely, so they should have enough time to let you in."

"But what if they don't?" Konohamaru questioned. "I mean, I know I could just run up to get away from the giants, but what should I do?"

"Go up anyway and punch whoever looks like they're in charge for thinking that it was okay to leave a kid alone down there." Naruto answered promptly. "They're not worth negotiating with if they're willing to let a kid die when they've got leeway in getting him up."

Konohamaru fidgeted, but was satisfied. "Um… what about you, Aniki?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Well, I don't think they'll trust someone my age as easily as they'd trust a kid like you, and I'd like to be able to go out and scout things without drawing too much attention to myself, but…"

"But what?"

"The plan is kind of embarrassing for me, which is why I started looking at it like a prank." He chuckled. "Basically, I'm going to use henge to turn into a fox and pretend I'm some wild animal that took a liking to you. Since foxes have a good sense of smell, you can tell them that I would lead you away from Titans when they were nearby, if they can and do ask why you keep me around."

Konohamaru gaped at him.

Naruto grinned. "Oh, come on. You know it's a good idea."

"But…" Konohamaru frowned. "Is your henge solid?"

"I… think so?" Naruto frowned and rubbed his chin. "Um… I use henge to turn into a fuuma shuriken in the fight with Zabuza when I was in Wave, and Sasuke threw me at him, so I _think_ so."

"Ebisu-sensei said that some people can make their henge solid if they have enough chakra. Mine's just at Genjutsu level, though." Konohamaru sighed.

"Eh, you're fine, brat." Naruto grinned. "You'll get the hang of it eventually, right?"

"I guess." Konohamaru hugged his knees. "So, what are the downsides of the second option?"

"It'll be harder to leave, and Kurama might b*tch about me pretending to be your pet. I… I honestly can't think of any others at the moment."

"So we'll do the second option?"

"…I guess we will."

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Yes, Naruto and Konohamaru are being all sneaky-sneaky and tricking people. Because… ninjas. And just the fact that they're getting in like **_**that**_ **leads to a whole other slew of fun problems.**

**There is a **_**lot**_** of contention among people regarding whether or not a henge is solid. As I mentioned in the story, there is evidence in canon that a henge can be relatively solid, such as Naruto turning into a fuuma shuriken and temporarily turning Gamabunta into a giant fox in order to fight Gaara. On the other hand, that doesn't really make much sense, that Academy students would be able to violate so many laws of physics so early on in their careers. However, there are different types of bunshin, the most basic of which is nothing but a small Genjutsu, all the way up to elemental and kage bunshin, which are solid… and I decided that I'd use the bunshin - kage bunshin application to henge as well, but without even changing the handsigns. Small reserves? It's a Genjutsu. Large reserves? Solid. It's the best I could come up with, so please bear with me.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	3. To Meet a Fellow

Hannes rubbed the back of his neck and yawned, even as he stared out at the forest. The sun was rising to his left, and it was casing shadows along the trees, not yet high enough to reach down to most of the Titans below.

Pulling the morning shift like this… ugh, what luck. Well, at least the chances of a repeat of Shiganshina were low. Then again, Shiganshina was an anomaly in and of itself. Any individual day had a bad chance of being a repeat, though with every passing day, the chance grew larger.

"Oi!"

Hannes blinked, glancing around to see who had shouted, but no one seemed to have been the one to shout. Maybe it had just been a figment of his imagination?

"Tasukete!"

Okay, he _knew_ he hadn't imagined that. Not that he understood it, but… seriously, where was it coming from? It sounded like it was coming from below, but unless the titans had learned to talk…

Actually, maybe he should check that they hadn't.

Slowly, he came closer to the edge. He didn't want to end up falling over and wasting gas to get back up again. Budget cuts were a pain, and he didn't want to be the one they yelled at for being careless.

No, none of the titans were moving, but there was a small splotch down there, moving rapidly and _oh god there was a kid down there!_

"Damn it!" He yelled, throwing himself over the edge without hesitation, already noting places to catch with his 3DMG in order to land safely. Thank the gods that the titans weren't moving yet.

"What the hell are you doing out here, kid?" He grabbed the kid by the shoulders. There was a muffled squeak from a bundle in the boy's arms, but Hannes was already back on the move. "Never mind! Hold on!"

Hannes pulled the kid closer, and thankfully, the brat seemed to understand what was going on and grabbed onto the orange jacket, holding tightly. Again, a muffled squeak came from between them, but was ignored in favor of _getting the hell out of there._

Within seconds of Hannes's return to the top of the wall, one of the captains was running towards him, yelling and demanding an explanation.

Hannes turned the kid around and pushed him toward the captain. "I don't know why, but this kid was down there."

He couldn't see the brat's face, but he was pretty sure the boy had that wide-eyed, _I'm in trouble_ look on his face. The captains tended to generate that sort of feeling.

Then again, seeing the captain speechless like this, even if it was only for a few seconds, was a bit of a treat.

Regaining his composure, the captain in question actually grabbed the kid by the neck of his rather scruffy shirt and pulled him close. "Who are you?! What were you doing out there?!"

The kid took a step back, another sign of hesitation. "O-ore wa anata o rikai shite inai, kore!"

The captain blinked and let the kid go, suddenly quite confused. He looked past the kid at Hannes. "Did you understand that?"

Hannes shook his head. Those words had been completely unintelligible to him. "Oi, kid, do you mind answering a few questions?"

The brat turned to look at him, eyes wide and Hannes could _tell_ that not a word was getting through to him. The bundle of fur in the kid's arms moved and… was that a fox? Yes, a fox was looking at him, almost yawning in boredom.

"Um…" He scratched the back of his head, wondering just what the policy was for this situation. Was there a policy for it? "What do we do, captain?"

The man looked between the boy and Hannes for a few seconds, and then brought a hand up to the side of his head. "I don't… take him to headquarters? He's from outside Wall Rose, and the last of the refugees were here by the four-month mark, so we don't have any note on who he could be. This is above our heads."

Hannes nodded. "Should I take him alone, or…?"

"Take a small team. If the kid managed to survive outside the walls, he's probably at least a little stronger than he looks. Four people." The captain rubbed the heel of his palm against his eye. "Ugh, it's too early in the morning for this."

"Should we try to avoid drawing attention to ourselves?"

"Don't bother." The captain waved a hand at him. "I want you back up here as soon as possible, so you don't have time for that."

"And the fox?"

"…Oh, what the hell, let him keep it." The captain shrugged. "Now go, I want the wall fully manned by the time the titans are all fully awake again."

"Yes, sir!" Hannes saluted, and then walked over to the kid and put a hand on his back. "C'mon."

He'd probably be talking a lot to the kid, whether he understood or not.

Now, whom to ask…

o.o.o.o.o

Konohamaru could practically _feel_ the smugness emanating from the fox in his arms, once it was confirmed that Naruto actually _had_ been right about the language barrier. Konohamaru felt that this was slightly mitigated by the fact that Naruto had actually let out a few noises that sounded fairly like squeaks during the initial move up from the foot of the wall.

The tall blonde guy glanced at Konohamaru, and then seemed to come to some sort of decision. He pointed to himself. "Hannes."

Konohamaru blinked, realizing that this was the man's name. He pointed to himself. "Konohamaru."

…It was kind of funny to see the man's face at that. Konohamaru knew he had a long name, but it was still funny to see people try to get it after the first time.

"Eh… wieder?"

Konohamaru tilted his head. "Eh?"

"Kono…" The man started and then made a little motion with his hands.

"Ah!" So he wanted Konohamaru to repeat his name. "Ko-no-ha-ma-ru."

The man repeated it, slowly, and then shook his head. Probably thought it was strange. In Konohamaru's opinion, Hannes was a pretty strange name too. Sounded like he was a feather.

The man pointed over the edge of the wall, and Konohamaru glanced over the edge.

The city was _bustling_. Civilization, for the first time in weeks, and it was right in front of him. He grinned, wondering if he could finally get food that wasn't just randomly caught or collected in the middle of the night.

The fox in his arms squirmed, taking a look, and then turned back to him with… with what he _assumed_ was a grin. He couldn't quite be sure.

"Ich bringe dich jetzt nach unten."

Konohamaru blinked and looked up at the man, entirely confused. But he was pointing over the edge, and at the weird machine at his hips (Konohamaru knew researchers back in Konoha that would probably _kill_ for something that could so easily get someone up high without chakra; it would make infiltrations so much less difficult), and then made a weird hugging motion with his arm as he pointed at Konohamaru again.

Okay. So the man wanted to carry him down again. He could deal with that.

Pasting the most innocent expression of anxiety on his face that he could, he nodded hesitantly. Quite frankly, it wasn't all that hard; he just had to imagine that Ebisu _and_ Iruka were mad at him again.

Yep. Anxiety confirmed.

The fox in his arms just yipped.

o.o.o.o.o

"Strange boy, doesn't understand a _word_—"

"—looked like he'd been on the run for _weeks_, you know—"

"—saw him, said he'd looked like he'd been living outside the walls, and—"

Eren tilted his head, and then glanced at Mikasa and Armin. "You guys wanna see what they're talking about?"

They both nodded, Armin a little more excited than Mikasa.

"Great. Most of the people here look like they're coming from the main street, so let's go that way." Trost was a crowded city, but it was also the closest place to sign up for the coming year of trainee entries, so in Trost they were.

They found the source of the ruckus, a set of Garrison soldiers leading along a boy that looked to be about ten or eleven, judging by his height and baby face. His clothes were obviously rather worn, and he looked like he hadn't gotten a good shower or bath in a while, but the most interesting thing was probably the fox in the boy's arms, a bright orange creature that was looking around at anything and everything, its head jerking around faster than most squirrels.

However, the thing that caught the eyes of the three Shiganshina refugees was the sight of one of the Garrison members that was leading the boy along.

"Hannes!" Eren shouted, eyes lighting up at the sight of an old… friend? Well, Hannes may have been a little old to be considered a friend, but that was probably the best appellation at the moment. "Oi, Hannes, over here!"

The tall blonde man looked over, shock and surprise, though pleased, written on his features. The other Garrison soldiers and the boy looked over as well. So did the fox, for that matter.

o.o.o.o.o

Naruto, if he ever got the chance, was going to snatch one of those weird hip-wire things, because they looked useful… but more importantly, they looked _fun._ Seriously, just the enjoyment that he'd get trying to use it for the first one would be worth it.

The city was _big_. It was also, to his enhanced senses in this form, full of too many sights, sounds, and smells. And while sight wouldn't have been such an issue, vulpine sight reacted to movement, which there was currently all too much of.

This was Kurama's fault for making the form so biologically accurate.

**Stop whining and start paying attention to things, brat. If you're going to pretend to be a pet, then at least try to make the situation useful.**

_Yeah, yeah, I know._

Naruto rolled his eyes, and then started to swivel his head, using years as a ninja to categorize and analyze everything that he saw. It was… depressing. The food was scarce and often unfamiliar, and the air was full of fear and anxiety. People tended to move while hunched over, and the tension was almost palpable. Maybe it was the giants, or the fact that they looked like they were on the cusp of a famine.

It was probably both.

Louder voices caught his attention, and he refrained from wincing at the newest assault on his ears. It was a bunch of kids, maybe Konohamaru's age, or a little older, who were yelling at the group. Judging by the fact that they seemed to know the blonde guy's name (Naruto _had_ been paying attention during the introductions), they were probably acquainted fairly well, though…

The girl. Her eyes were… come to think of it, she was the only one he'd seen so far that had eyes like the older clans back home. The Hyuuga, Uchiha, Sarutobi, and Nara had all had eyes like that, and so certain members of the Senju, Inuzuka, and Akimichi.

It was… interesting. That fact alone set her apart from the people he'd seen so far, and then her hair, so straight and black and shiny, so much like the other old, traditional clans… it made him wonder.

He jumped out of Konohamaru's arms (oh, it felt _good_ to stretch his legs like this) and trotted over to the girl, ignoring Kono's shouts at him to stop.

Naruto pushed himself up onto his hind legs and braced himself against the girl's knees, tilting his head as he stared up at her.

Yeah, there was definitely something strange about her.

o.o.o.o.o

Mikasa's eyes were wide as she looked at the boy in the center of the Garrison's circle. The only time she saw eyes like those anymore was when she looked in the mirror. The only time she'd seen them otherwise was when looking at her mother.

The boy was like her. She wasn't the last one.

Mikasa watched the fox jump out of his arms and dart over to her, and saw it start looking at her, but her head snapped back up as she heard the boy shouting after it.

"Oi, oi! Nanishiteruno? Koko ni modotte kudasai!"

She recognized those words. Or, some of them, anyway. 'Nani' was familiar, and 'ni' was certainly something she remembered. The rest… she _thought_ she understood.

Mikasa bent down and picked up the fox, holding it out to the boy. Now, he'd just said the word, and if she was right… "Koko."

The boy nodded absentmindedly as he reached out, and then froze. Hesitantly, he spoke. "Nihongo o hanasu?"

Mikasa nodded hesitantly, fairly certain that she could understand that much. "Ah… tashoo?"

The boy, after a second, grinned widely and took back the fox. He stuck out a hand. "Ore wa Sarutobi Konohamaru."

She took his hand slowly, ignoring the stares. "Watashi wa Mi… iie. Watashi wa Ackermann Mikasa."

The boy tilted his head and nodded. "Hajimemashite."

Mikasa nodded, not trusting herself to answer.

"Mikasa, what's going on?" Eren tugged at her sleeve, tired of listening to a conversation he didn't understand.

"I… I think he's from the same place as my mother's family." Mikasa admitted.

"Can you translate?" Hannes asked, a look of cautious relief on his face. "Because if you can… you're probably the only way we'll be able to understand him."

Mikasa shook her head. "I only remember a little."

"Better than what we have." Hannes replied, and glanced at the rest of his team. "Mind if we take these three with us?"

The other three Garrison soldiers glanced at each other and shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

"Great." Hannes turned to the Shiganshina trio and motioned at them. "You guys get to come with us, then. Mikasa, keep talking and try to learn some information, alright?"

"…Okay."

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Yes, yes, I know some of the chapter is a little contrived, but I didn't want to use an OC for the 'rescue,' or use a character minor enough to be mistaken for an OC, and… I don't really have an excuse for the Shiganshina trio other than that it was a convenient situation.**

**I decided that there was literally no way for the Naruto world and the SnK world to have the same language, not without being even more contrived than the above situations. The names in SnK, or at least, the surnames, are almost all either sound German, or are **_**actually**_** German. Exceptions are names like Erwin Smith. My only real stumbling block in choosing the correct place and language was Castle Utgard from the manga, because Utgard is from Norse myth. Eventually, I decided that there was more evidence in favor of German than in favor of a Nordic country. Naruto and Konohamaru, of course, speak Japanese.**

**I'm not going to translate. Translating would be… well, a tad backwards. You can guess most of it from context, and the rest is better left untranslated for the story at the moment. Later, that might change, but it will also be in-story translations, rather than end-notes.**

**Hm… I think that's all. Oh, and, out of curiosity, is Konohamaru's inclusion the thing that's driving people away from the story? I'm a little concerned by the relatively small turnout.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


	4. Welcome to the World

The ability to communicate, as flawed as it was, was… extremely annoying.

Konohamaru knew that he should be grateful that there was even a single person that sort of understood him, but he could tell that this girl, Mikasa, wasn't all that fluent. She could hold simple conversations, but even with those, she stuttered and second-guessed herself constantly.

And it wasn't even like the girl herself was all that bad, either. She reminded him, personality wise, of a slightly more personable Hyuuga: fairly friendly, but so reserved that it was hard to spot. Given the reactions of the people around him to her, Mikasa was a smart girl that was fairly eloquent and had no trouble conveying her thoughts in the local language.

Unfortunately, that all fell apart when it came to Japanese, because Mikasa only knew really, really basic conversational skills, and even those were shaky enough that Konohamaru was growing frustrated.

Of course, throughout the whole thing, Naruto just looked smug and grinned, his vulpine face strangely contorted to accommodate the expression.

…A**hole.

o.o.o.o.o

Hannes wasn't very sure about where he should take the kids (and he had to take them all, because they had no chance of understanding Kono… Konohamaru, unless Mikasa was there, and Mikasa would never leave her boys). It was true that Commander Pixis was visiting Trost, and would probably be interested, given his natural eccentricity, but it was also far beneath his notice. Probably.

Hannes was seriously conflicted about what to do with the situation. Would it be presumptuous to ask that the kids talk to someone with a higher level of authority than a captain? Was it even a matter for the Garrison? Should the Military Police be called in, because the kid was technically not a resident of Wall Rose or Wall Sina? Should the Survey Corps be called in for their input, because the kid had survived for so long outside the walls and had information that they might need as a result?

And he had to decide quickly enough to get back to the walls with his team before the sun was high enough for the Titans to wake up.

Groaning mentally, Hannes turned his attention back to the kids. A smirk almost crossed his face when he saw that Mikasa and Konohamaru looked equally frustrated about not understanding each other fully, with Eren's angry pout at not understanding either of them posing a nice complement in the back. Armin looked… well, he seemed a little lost to the conversation, but he was also much calmer and less concerned about it all.

"Well, well, well… look who's waiting for us." One of the other soldiers muttered, and Hannes looked up at him quizzically. The man caught his eye and then nodded discreetly at the door of the HQ, slowly growing closer with every passing step.

…It seemed that the decision had been taken out of his hands.

"I heard some rumors about a kid from outside the walls." Commander Pixis grinned at the group, easy-going. "I thought I'd come out and see what all the fuss was about."

The second they were close enough to stop, Hannes brought his arm up in the salute, the other members of the squad following suit almost immediately.

Eren frowned and took a step closer to Hannes. "Who is that?"

Pixis replied before Hannes could open his mouth to offer an answer of his own. "I'm Dot Pixis, the Commander for the Garrison division of the military."

Eren's eyes widened, and he exchanged quick looks with Armin and Mikasa. Amazement colored his face, as it did to Armin's, though Mikasa was as stoic as she always was. Konohamaru just looked confused, and tugged on Mikasa's sleeve, quietly asking for an explanation.

"Why don't you come in?" Pixis gestured. "It's pretty early in the morning, especially for kids like them."

Eren bristled, but Hannes put a hand on his shoulder. "My team and I have to get back to the wall, sir, but the kids are sure to stay for now."

"I was told that there was only one." Pixis mused, his eyes tracking over all four of the preteens.

"The one from beyond the wall is the boy with the fox." At least identification was fairly easy when he had something as abnormal as a pet fox. "The others are some kids that I knew back in Shiganshina. Mikasa understands some of what he's saying, so we brought her along. Eren and Armin refuse to be separated from her, so they came along as well."

Hannes sweated for a few seconds as he watched Pixis come to a verdict on whether he'd made the right choice in bringing along the—

Pixis grinned, taking a swig from his flask. "Well, it doesn't seem like a bad idea to me. Come on inside, kids; it's cold out here this time of day."

The three from Shiganshina glanced at each other and seemed to come to a conclusion almost simultaneously, surging forward with just a small wave back at Hannes. He noticed that Mikasa hand a hand fisted around Konohamaru's sleeve, pulling him along as well.

Heh. Kids.

o.o.o.o.o

Konohamaru struggled not to drop Naruto, who seemed to find this all a little too fun. He was probably enjoying Konohamaru's unending frustration with the situation as a whole. Like the fact that he and Mikasa could only string together the most tentative of conversations.

More importantly, though, Mikasa was _strong_. Konohamaru was having trouble getting her to release his shirt, actually. He doubted that she was as strong as Sakura-san or Tsunade-sama (he doubted _anyone_ was as strong as those two, except maybe the Green Beasts), but Mikasa was still a lot stronger than just about every other girl her age.

She had… potential, in that regard.

Naruto jumped out of Konohamaru's arms and bounded ahead, taking a chance to examine Pixis before Kono got there himself. Even little kids could be suspect of things like that, no matter how young, because of how easily people could notice uncharacteristic behavior in their own species. Animals, however, were seen as being much less intelligent than people, especially in a world like this that had no summons. As such, they were much less likely to fall under suspicion for anything more severe than 'stole some bacon from the kitchen,' and people rarely knew enough about pet foxes to actually have any sort of opinion on fox behavior in the first place. And if a pet fox suddenly vanished into the night for whatever reason, it wasn't really as big of a deal as a person vanishing.

Plus, no one expected a fox to be able to give them a detailed history of their lives. Konohamaru was pretty envious of Naruto in that respect. _Naruto_ didn't have to try to learn a new language or teach someone Japanese. No, he just pushed all that work off on Konohamaru.

Then again, Naruto would probably be disappearing at night to learn things as discretely as possible. He'd probably steal one of those transport mechanisms as soon as he could do it in a way that wouldn't implicate Konohamaru.

"Gut, gut, bist du ein freundlicher kleiner Kerl, nicht?" The old man that everyone had saluted actually chuckled and reached down to rub the area between Naruto's ears, like he was some little dog, not a dangerous and powerful ninja that could probably destroy the entire city in one attack if he really felt like it. The fact that Naruto was lapping it up did _not_ help, because he was obviously still treating it like a prank gone horribly, horribly right. "Lasst uns reingehen, in Ordnung?"

"We need… to go in… the building." Mikasa spoke slowly, pulling Konohamaru in the way she had been for the past few meters. After a few seconds of discretely struggling, he just let her do it, following along behind the old, bald man without too much issue. The room they ended up in was stone and fairly well-furnished, visibly belonging to someone high up in whatever the military here was.

Konohamaru sat down cautiously in a chair, relaxing when he confirmed that there were no traps. Naruto jumped up onto Konohamaru's lap, and used it as a springboard to get up onto the desk. Apparently, he preferred to act at least a little dignified… or something. Konohamaru wasn't really all that sure what was going on with his older brother figure at the moment.

The old man didn't seem to mind the vulpine invasion on his desk, and actually motioned to Naruto as though asking for permission to pet him. Konohamaru shrugged a little uncomfortably, knowing that it wasn't really his decision to make. Though he did know that he was going to be rather annoyed if Naruto started purring to make him jealous of the laziness or something.

…He spoke too soon.

The conversation started soon after, with the old guy directing his questions to Mikasa, and Mikasa doing her best to translate.

"Name?"

"Sarutobi Konohamaru."

"Where are you from?"

"The Village Hidden in the Leaves." _Konohagakure no Sato._ Konohamaru noted the rather lost look on Mikasa's face. He glanced over at the old guy and mimed drawing something on his palm. He grinned as the old man passed him some paper and a… was this a pen? "Um…"

He glanced at Mikasa. "I haven't used these before. I used brush pens and pencils. Not… I don't know what this is."

It took a few seconds, and Konohamaru was fairly certain that his message was passed along just as effectively by his body language as it was by his words, but Mikasa did end up turning to the old man and quickly explaining the problem in that language that Konohamaru kind of that sounded like gargling really soft rocks. It wasn't _that_ harsh, but it was a lot harsher than Japanese.

In the end, Konohamaru got a pencil to write with. "Thanks, um…"

"Pixis Dot." Mikasa offered. "He is the… the _Kommandant der Garnison_. He is the man that is the boss of the people with the swords. But not all. The ones with roses on their backs."

_Oh_. So that's why everyone did that thing before. This guy was like… maybe the ANBU head? Or the Jounin commander? Something like that. He was head honcho for a big portion of the military.

So… either the guy was as eccentric as the late Jiraiya and figured he could entertain himself for a bit with some fun information from outside the walls, or the fact that they were from outside the walls was a bigger deal than they had thought.

"Okay. Er… thank you, Pixis-sama." That was probably right. Now, the paper had been for… ah!

Konohamaru scribbled down a rough picture of a leaf, trying to make it as realistic as possible, rather than the stylized form on his headband. He pointed at it with the pencil. "Konoha. Leaf."

Mikasa nodded. "What is…?"

"Hide, hidden, um…" Konohamaru, feeling a little silly, put his hands up in front of his face, like a little kid playing a game, even peeking out from between his fingers for good measure. "Village," Mikasa nodded, thankfully already knowing the word. "Hidden in the Leaves. Leaves are in front of the village. The village cannot be found because of the trees."

Mikasa nodded along to Konohamaru's almost painfully slow words, understanding. "Okay. I will tell him."

The conversation with Pixis was rather short, but he appeared to be intrigued.

"Are there more?" Mikasa asked after a while.

"More… what?"

"More… people? More villages?"

Konohamaru knew how he was supposed to answer this one. "There _were_."

Mikasa blinked, and then understanding filled her face, though there was no pity. "Ah."

"Leaf." He drew the stylized symbol of his village and pointed to his forehead. "Cloud." The strange, puddle-like symbol. "Sand." The hourglass. "Rock." The chunks. "Mist." The squiggly lines. "These were the five most powerful villages, but there were more, like Rain, Grass, Sound, Waterfall," he trailed off as he saw the confusion on Mikasa's face. "All gone now."

Another short conversation, and then she turned back to him. "How did you live?"

Konohamaru tapped his chin with the pencil, and then stuck his tongue out with concentration as he drew what looked like a bunch of underground tunnels, built into the side of a mountain. The story that he and Naruto had come up with was actually based on Orochimaru's pet village, one of the few settings that could probably work against the giants. "Under the ground. The entrances were too small for Titans, sometimes under water. We would stay inside during the day, and come out at night. They couldn't get in because of that, not until a short while ago. Some people got away, but…" He twisted his face into a saddened expression, calling up images of the destroyed Konoha from after Pein's attack and Asuma's death to make it believable.

Mikasa stared at the paper for a few seconds, and then turned to Pixis, speaking rapidly; Konohamaru wasn't all that sure that she'd understood _everything_, but with the pictures and what she did understand, she'd probably at least gotten the gist of it. Pixis actually seemed rather intrigued by the idea that Konohamaru had presented, and wrote something on a paper to the side.

"How did _you_ live?" Mikasa asked again. "Not in the village, but after the…"

Konohamaru pointed at Naruto.

There was a long, pregnant silence at that silent claim.

"He can smell Titans." Konohamaru elaborated, tapping his nose. "He led me away from them."

Mikasa's mouth opened into a small 'o,' as she realized what Konohamaru had meant.

"And," Konohamaru continued, knowing that this part was going to be slightly harder to pull off, but that it was necessary. "My older brother helped."

"You have a brother?"

Konohamaru nodded. "Not by blood, but I've looked up to him for years, and he protects me and taught me how to fight, so…"

"Where is he?" Mikasa was asking questions on her own now, knowing what information she needed to gather at the moment.

Konohamaru just shrugged. "Out there, beyond the walls."

Mikasa's face fell. "Could he kill the, um…"

"Giants?" Konohamaru suggested, and Mikasa nodded, assuming that he'd understood what she meant. He shrugged and put his hands together in a pair of fists in front of him, and then mimed a large explosion. Anything regarding chakra was impossible, but given that they'd heard an explosion the day before, the idea that Naruto could kill with just some good booms was reasonable… enough. "Everything from here on up." He made a horizontal slicing motion across the middle of his torso, and then waved them higher.

Ever so slowly, Mikasa turned back to Pixis and started explaining everything that Konohamaru had just told her. The two boys that had been with Mikasa all this time (Kono really had to learn their names) turned to stare at Konohamaru after a few seconds, and he could practically feel the "oh, yeah, I'm awesome" vibes coming from the fox on the desk.

There was a long silence, again, after Mikasa finally stopped translating, finally broken by the blond boy.

"How old are you?"

Konohamaru shrugged. "Thirteen."

The shock was hidden well this time, but a shinobi could always tell. "And your brother?"

"Um… seventeen. And a half."

The look on her face grew slightly calmer at that. "His name?"

"Uzumaki Naruto."

No recognition. So they weren't in some freaky future, probably, because even after thousands of years, people tended to remember certain figures of history, and Naruto TOTALLY would have been one of those figures. Would be, actually, if they ever got back home, and probably even if they didn't.

"Can I ask some questions now?" Put in just enough of a petulant whine to get away with pretending to be a normal thirteen-year-old, and…

Of course they had to discuss it again.

"What do you want to know?"

"Those soldiers up there are supposed to kill those things, right? But I only saw swords. How does that work?"

This question, Mikasa could answer herself. She quickly sketched a vaguely humanoid side silhouette, and then drew a triangle in the back of the neck. "This part needs to be…" She frowned, searching for the word, and then just mimed slicing it out.

Konohamaru nodded, and then glanced up at the fox on the desk. Despite the lazy look in Naruto's eyes, he was obviously paying attention. With this information, they no longer needed to destroy the entire upper body. Just a single normal Rasengan would probably work, or even a good elemental technique.

"Okay. Um… where are we? And the basic layout or…" He trailed off, and then just sighed, knowing that words like "geographical" and "political" probably hadn't been part of Mikasa's upbringing. "A map, maybe?"

Mikasa looked over at Pixis, who seemed rather amused by the exchange, but actually had a map on hand.

Konohamaru listened closely as they explained the way the country worked, and he knew that Naruto was listening closely as well. When they finished, in exchange, he drew a rough map of the Elemental Nations, including the fact that he didn't actually know most of how to get to some of the villages or where they were.

Konohamaru sat back. What else did he want to know and not mind exchanging information for?

"Who are they, and how old are you three?" He pointed at the boys that Mikasa had with her.

Mikasa pointed at the boy with the dark hair. "Jaeger Eren. He is my… brother. We did not have the same parents, but that does not matter." So… either adopted, or it was like him and Naruto. Her finger moved to the blond one. "Arlert Armin, a friend from when we were small. Eren is twelve. Armin and I are eleven and… and a half?"

Konohamaru stared at her for a second. No way! They looked older than that! Or… maybe it was just that they aged differently here? They all seemed fairly slim, and Konohamaru _knew_ he was a little short for his age (though he was hoping he could be as tall as Uncle Asuma had been), but seriously?

Eren and Armin were bugging Mikasa to explain what had happened, and looking past them, Konohamaru could see Naruto silently laughing at him. He narrowed his eyes at the fox, especially once he saw Eren and Armin get little grins out of the corner of his eye.

"What is its name?" Mikasa pointed at Naruto.

Ah, that question. At least he had an answer prepared, one that would work almost naturally, and wouldn't cause trouble or confusion with Naruto or Kurama later.

"His name is Kyuubi." He looked up and saw Naruto wink at him; he hadn't known that foxes _could_ wink. "Do you know the legends of the Kyuubi no Kitsune?"

When Mikasa shook her head, Konohamaru launched into the old stories, where foxes gained a new tail with every century. This was part of the plan, of course. The more information he offered up, the more innocent he appeared. He wouldn't tell them the real story of the Kyuubi, the one with the Juubi and the Sage and the eventual attack on Konoha, but… well, the old stories couldn't hurt.

"So the name is sort of a wish for longevity, you know?" He finally ended. Now… he had more questions, he knew it, but… oh, yeah!

"How does the military work around here?" He knew there was a spark in his eyes, but he came from generations upon generations of warriors. Konohamaru couldn't _help_ but be interested in the military.

Another quick discussion with Pixis, probably to see how much Kono was allowed to know, which ended in chuckling from the old man and a nod from Mikasa. Though the fact that they asked (politely, at that) for information on Konoha's military afterwards was difficult to work with, given that he continuously had to remind himself that he couldn't mention chakra at all.

"Are you a genin?" Mikasa's ease of speaking was noticeably better after an hour or two of conversation. She had begun to grow more comfortable with the language already.

Konohamaru nodded. "And I'll be Hokage one day, after big bro steps down!"

She gave him a tentative almost-smile, like she didn't really want to smile, and wasn't used to making such expressions, but felt like she was bound by some ancient code to either support him or tell him to give up on a pipe dream. He'd seen the look on veterans before, and he didn't like it at all.

Pixis leaned forward across his desk at that point, hands laced under his chin. He spoke to Mikasa for a second, and after yet another short conversation, which caused Eren and Armin to jump in at one point, and Pixis to laugh, Mikasa turned back to Konohamaru.

"Do you want to join with us? Pixis-sama," She had taken to calling him that, in lieu of actually being able to figure out what the equivalent to _Kommandant_, "said that he can talk to them for you so that we all end up in the same group, because you cannot speak our language."

Become a member of their army? That was probably a good idea, but he needed Naruto's opinion. If he made a wrong move that caused a situation that could have been avoided, it would be his fault, and he'd honestly feel terrible about causing the trouble.

"I… can I have a night to think about it?" That was probably the safest option at the moment. "I want to, but I need to think it through, and I would always have primary loyalty to my Hokage, so I can't really swear _full_ loyalty to your king, just, like, an alliance."

Not just the Hokage, but _his_ Hokage. Just by that wording, he was already saying that he would defer to Naruto on all decisions, and given the nod from the fox, the message had gone through.

Mikasa nodded slowly, relaying the message, and drawing a reply out of Pixis, one that put grateful smiles on all three of the younger kids' faces. "Pixis said that he can give all four of us a place to stay tonight, so long as you give him your answer in the morning."

Konohamaru blinked at that, and then turned to Pixis, even though he knew that the man couldn't answer him. "Why?"

A few more seconds, and… "Just the fact that you lived outside means that you can make a good soldier. You would be… useful."

Konohamaru nodded, a little embarrassed by the praise. That had mostly been Naruto, after all. "I… thank you, Pixis-sama." He bowed low to the man, and then looked back up when he heard a snort of laughter from Eren.

…Naruto had bowed too.

o.o.o.o.o

Once he thought everyone else in the room was asleep, Konohamaru quickly brought his hands up to his chest and performed a small Genjutsu, enough to blot out any sound from coming exiting the immediate area. It wouldn't change what anyone saw, but that hopefully wouldn't be an issue.

With a small poof of chakra smoke, Naruto was sitting on his bed, stretching out the kinks that had built up in his body over the course of the day.

"Aniki?"

"Gimme a few more seconds." A series of pops came from Naruto as he cracked his back, still in the dark, and then relaxed. "Ah… okay, that's better."

"Aniki?" Konohamaru asked again. "Do you… do you think I should take it?"

"Definitely." Naruto said without hesitation. "The military is the best place to get information, and you're basically being offered a free ride in."

"But what about you?" There was no way Naruto would want to be a pet fox for three years.

"I'll be doing exactly what you said I was." Naruto said without preamble. "I'll go back outside the walls, sneak over during the middle of the night, and see what I can do. Thin the population of the giants, gather information, perfect Hiraishin, and, if I can, plug that hole that they mentioned. It would be a lot more helpful if I had some Doton techniques, but I have Kage Bunshin, so I still have the upper hand, I think."

"Aniki, but…" Konohamaru's protests died on his lips. Naruto would be able to handle himself. He probably could have been able to handle himself fine when _he_ was a genin, so to think that he would be in any danger now was rather silly.

"Yeah, I know. You'll miss me." Naruto's wide grin was almost audible in the silent darkness of the night. "Don't worry. I'll come by to exchange info once every couple of months. Might even reveal myself in human form. I'll even send Kage Bunshin foxes to stay with you just in case!"

"I'm not a little kid that needs to—whoa." Konohamaru cursed himself mentally as he almost lost control of the Genjutsu in his momentary anger.

"Yeah, I know. But I'll still visit for info every few months, and once I perfect Hiraishin, I'll give you one of the kunai for emergencies."

"What if…" Konohamaru wet his lips. "What if you end up messing up and go into a different dimension again?"

"I won't, I promise." Naruto put a hand on Konohamaru's leg, the only part of his body that he could comfortably reach and not be weird about touching. "I've spent the last few weeks trying to figure out what went wrong during the night. I think I know where I messed up, and the chances of this happening again are low. I mean, it didn't happen to the Second Hokage or my dad, right? I'll even work on trying to send things back to our dimension, so that we can get home."

Konohamaru felt that awkward squirm of hope wriggling around in his gut. "You think we can get home?"

He could have almost died of embarrassment, hearing that painfully innocent wisp of childish homesickness in his tone.

Naruto's voice was low and just as longing. "Yeah. I keep my promises, remember? Because that's my nindo."

o.o.o.o.o

**A/N: Thank you to the anonymous guest review last chapter that pointed out a mistake in one of my German lines. If you see more mistakes along those lines, please don't hesitate to tell me.**

**I also ask that you not make requests or suggestions concerning the story, or worse yet, make demands or outright **_**order**_** me to do something with the characters, as has happened several times already.**

**And yes, you'll all be seeing **_**plenty **_**from Naruto's perspective in the coming chapters as well. It was going to be solely from Konohamaru's, but you've all convinced me that no one really adores the kid the way I do, so I'll have to add Naruto in as well. (Fun Fact: I like characters to earn their happy endings, so you can usually figure out who my favorite characters are pretty easily; they're the ones I torture the most.)**

**This story is pending addition to my "Major Stories" set. What does that mean? It means that:**

**1. You would get longer chapters. Like this one.**

**2. The chapters would come on a schedule. Specifically, once every three weeks, on the dot.**

**Tell me if you want the story to be added to the list. But don't make it the **_**only**_** think in your review either. Please. **_**Please**_**.**

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter.**

**Ja ne,**

**Phoenix**


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